DealersEdge Professional Forums

Has anyone had any experience with "lifetime alignments"?

Our dealer principle was on a trip recently and saw some dealers in California offering "Lifetime alignments for your vehicles."

Input, Good, Bad, Indifferent??
Pricing, snags, etc.

Totally relies on your customers/
franchise. A Jeep store that turns people in and out of vehicles every 3 years it is a possibility to work - for a Volvo store where that length becomes 7 years, not so much. Plus it seems some vehicles/market areas don't hold alignments well and seem to need an annual alignment.

If a standard is like $79.95, a lifetime would be $119.95. It seems that stores that have done this have eliminated the standard option, except done as related to a repair.

It seems to be a good way to get more gross out of tire replacements - but I always wonder what happens with the service manager moves on two years from now and who gets stuck paying those alignments. But at least if a vehicle needs aligned again it is another chance to look at higher mileage steering/suspension repairs - even if the alignment is free. I have never fully quantified long-term costs/benefits.

We do lifetime alignments and lifetime wheel balancing. The purpose is two fold, #1 it creates a higher gross and #2 it locks your customers to your store. Our biggest obstacle in the repair business is customer retention. This will keep your customers coming back. The few tines you have to redoe an alignment or wheel balace is not even an issue. Just my $.02.

I am advertising FREE alignments on cable TV.
Basic front-end toe set. four wheel and thrust angle are upsell.

I also offer all tires at $5.00 over cost. Wheel weights are dollar cost averaged and matrix priced along with the stems....

We do lifetime alignments for $99.00 good gross revenue. We also do lifetime brakes. I have a labor op to track these and run a op code useage report and send them a post card every 6 months to get them back for a free alignment check and free brake check. The lifetime brake job is only a part lifetime and labor is $99 to cut rotors and hang pads. Maybe on the second cut it will need rotors or drums.

GENE HOW DO YOU HANDLE PAYING THE TECHS FOR ALIGNMENT CHECKS OR RE-ALIGNMENT. YOUR PLAN SOUNDS GOOD.

May I suggest you go to every local repair shop website and check to see what they are doing. I sign up for everybodies e-newsletter and get reminded every time they run a newsletter exactly what they are offering.It's like mystery shopping with out leaving your chair.

Pay the tech, he deserves it. Write it off to coupons and make sure your service center does a good inspection. Are you in the tire biz? Sell sell sell.

We do "pass-no pay" alignments; based on the print-out, if everything's within spec. the check-out is free (we pay the tech). If alignment is needed, we do the work and the customer pays for it (and knows that before the car goes on the rack). In practice, almost every car needs some adjustment, but because the rack computer is making the decision and not the "greedy" tech, the customer feels comfortable. The fact that we accept the risk of a free check-out encourages the customer to have it done, and our alignment sales have grown since we started the program.

For those offering lifetime alignments, how often will you check the alignment for the customer? How do you make sure you are asked to buy tires by the customer when they wear unevenly? Do you sell your lifetime alignments for more than you used to sell your alignments? Do you have an alignment guy who gets paid less than your regular techs?